Today, the iron ore futures first weakened then strengthened, with the most-traded contract I2601 closing at 805, up slightly by 0.25% from the previous trading day. Traders sold goods following market trends; steel mills gradually accepted high prices and purchased as needed. The market transaction atmosphere was moderate. In Shandong, the mainstream transaction prices for PB fines were 795-800 yuan/mt, flat from yesterday; in Tangshan, transaction prices for PB fines were around 800-810 yuan/mt, also flat from yesterday.
According to an SMM survey, on September 10, the blast furnace operating rate at 242 steel mills surveyed by SMM was 86.16%, up 1.15 percentage points MoM. The daily average hot metal production at the sampled steel mills was 2.3929 million mt, up 44,000 mt MoM.
As the parade activities concluded, blast furnaces undergoing maintenance in Tangshan, Hebei, gradually resumed production. Although some regional steel mills scheduled annual maintenance, the overall hot metal production showed a clear upward trend. Hot metal production is expected to continue rising next week. In the short term, demand provides some support for ore prices, and the market is likely to continue fluctuating rangebound with a relatively strong bias.
